Read The Love Square for Free Online

her, eyes wide, as Dylan took another picture. When she didn’t speak, he asked, “Well?”
    He turned to face the ocean so he could see Clare’s view. Only a handful of families sat scattered, as it wasn’t the best beach day—overcast, a little cool, a weekday. Dylan was glad she would get to experience the beach like this instead of on a crowded, hot weekend day.
    “I never imagined it would be this big.” Clare trekked through the sand.
    “The beach or the ocean? There are smaller beaches. This one is pretty big.”
    “The beach, the ocean. The ocean is endless.” Clare kept her eyes on the water as she walked toward it. At one point, she stopped and looked at her feet. “The sand is hard to walk on,” she commented.
    “Not compared to doing it barefoot in the summer when it burns your feet,” Dylan said. “You can take your shoes off if it makes it easier. The sand won’t be hot today.”
    She pulled off her sandals and absentmindedly left them behind as she moved toward the water. He picked them up and followed her to its edge.
    “Wow,” she said, looking to the horizon. “It keeps going like this, huh? Just wave after wave. I feel a little dizzy. Gosh, the smell…it’s amazing. All of it is…incredible.”
    Dylan watched as Clare stuck her toes into the wet sand near the water. When the wave came up and covered her feet, she giggled. Dylan snapped a picture of her. She looked like a little girl, with her big hat and her goofy grin.
    “My feet are sinking,” she said. “I’m stuck!”
    “You’re not stuck. If you stay in one place, your feet will sink.” He left Clare to her wonderment and chose a spot on the dry sand to unload their stuff. Then he flipped off his sneakers, rolled up his pants, and joined her in the water.
    “I think I’m going to lose my balance,” she said, giggling. “It’s so cold under the sand.” She looked up at Dylan and caught his gaze, a blush across her cheeks. “You must think I’m an idiot.”
    “Actually, I think you’re cute,” he said, smiling down at her as he tapped the brim of her hat.
    She turned her attention back to the water. “I can’t stop looking. Does it ever get old?”
    “Nope. Never.”
    After a couple minutes of playing in the water, Dylan grabbed Clare’s hand and brought her to their gear. He opened the duffel bag and pulled out a blanket, which he spread over the sand. “Sit,” he requested.
    Clare sat on the blanket while Dylan pulled two water bottles from his bag. He relaxed next to her and handed her one. Clare took a swig and followed Dylan’s lead in recapping it and sticking it into the sand. “To keep it cool,” he said. “Although it’s pretty cool out today anyway.”
    Clare raked the sand with her fingers. “It’s so fine, the sand. At home, there’s this lake we go to, but the sand is all rocky and dirty. This is so clean and soft.”
    “You know what I love about the beach?” Dylan asked.
    “What?”
    “I love shutting my eyes and listening to the waves, smelling the ocean, feeling the moisture in the air, the heat of the sun, the taste of the salt. All my senses working. Some of the best naps I’ve ever had were here, lying on this very beach.”
    “Is that a hint? You know, you’re pretty laid-back for a movie star, Lusty,” Clare said.
    “I’m hardly a movie star, Nebraska.”
    Clare snickered at her new nickname. “You almost are. You will be in a couple of months when your gladiator movie starts.”
    “How do you know about my gladiator stuff?”
    “I Googled you, of course.”
    “Great,” Dylan said sarcastically. “What else did you find out?”
    “Not too much I didn’t know. I read about you dating your Sunrise, Sunset costar. You said she broke your heart.”
    “Oh yeah. That would be Maggie. She did. I’m over it now.”
    “She looked like a bitch.”
    Dylan shook his head.
    “What?”
    “She wasn’t a bitch, Nebraska. Don’t believe everything you see on the Internet.